Chromecast app updates with mirroring support on select Devices [APK Download]

Google I/O produced a ton of new stuff that we all drooled over. Much of what was seen won’t be available until later this fall sadly. However, one feature they demonstrated for the Chromecast is finally making its way to devices. Today Google has pushed an update to the Chromecast app that enables the screen mirroring function.

If you happen to own any of the currently supported devices from the list below, you should be able to cast anything and everything that you see on your device’s screen right to your Chromecast connected TV. Google states the ‘cast screen’ feature is still beta so you can expect some conflicts here and there.

• Nexus 4
• Nexus 5
• Nexus 7 (2013)
• Nexus 10
• Samsung Galaxy S4
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (GPE)
• Samsung Galaxy S5
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10
• HTC One M7 (GPE)
• LG G3
• LG G2
• LG G Pro 2
• Support for additional devices coming soon

I got the update and installed it on both my Xperia Z and Xperia Z1s and was hopeful it would at least offer the option, but no dice. Hopefully it gets more device support in short order. If you don’t see the update in the Play Store yet you can always just hit up the gappsearly link below and sideload it. Let us know if it happens to work on any devices that aren’t listed too.

Tip: You might need to restart your Chromecast device after updating. We have heard that has triggered the cast screen side menu item for a few people.

Chromecast v1.7.4 APK download

Source: Android blog via Droid-Life

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FBI and NSA targeted prominent Muslim-American leaders for surveillance

Pictured: NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland

Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency monitored the emails of five prominent Muslim-Americans, documents from former-NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveal. The Intercept detailed those documents early this morning, which show the email addresses of Faisal Gill, Asim Ghafoor, Hooshang Amirahmadi, Agha Saeed, Nihad Awad. The list ranges from a former Department of Homeland Security staffer to the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secretive United States court that oversees surveillance requests from the intelligence community, is ruled by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That act states that Americans can only be targeted if they are working for a foreign power, or if they’re involved in a terrorist organization. Further, said targets must be plotting or engaging in one of a variety of nefarious acts: “espionage, sabotage, or terrorism,” The Intercept states.

Beyond the five prominent, public men listed, 7,485 email addresses are identified as under surveillance between 2002 and 2008; 202 of those addresses are tied to “U.S. persons,” while 1,782 are tied to “non-U.S. persons.” Another 5,501 don’t contain identifying information. Other standouts on the US side include Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, two men accused of terrorist activity (both were killed in a US drone strike in 2011).

The scope of the US government’s surveillance efforts was widely revealed last summer when former-NSA contractor Edward Snowden began leaking classified documents to reporters at The Guardian. The documents detailed a variety of programs, including PRISM — which allows the mass collection of data on US citizens — and MYSTIC — which allows data to be retrieved from the past.

This morning’s news is especially interesting as it’s the first we’re hearing of US surveillance efforts specifically targeting prominent religious and ethnic leaders. At least in recent years: the US government, through a program named “COINTELPRO,” specifically targeted US political groups (like the Black Panthers and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in the mid-20th century. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 — the law at the heart of the FISA court which approved the surveillance of five Muslim-Americans — is intended to curtail such surveillance overreaches.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Software

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Source: The Intercept

Prince of Persia Shadow & Flame on Sale for a Buck

Ubisoft has put out a summer sale on the Prince of Persia Shadow & Flame. The side scrolling recreation of a classic generally would set you back $2.99. For a limited time, Ubisoft dropped that price to just $0.99.

The game offers up 14 levels in 5 different environments. You can utilize gesture based gaming or a more classic on-screen joystick style of play. If you happen to have a Moga controller at your disposal, it also supports that as well. If you have been eyeballing this one you might as well snag it today. Maybe they will toss out a sale on Assassin’s Creed Pirates next.

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Battlefield 4 Commander app updates to support Dragon’s Teeth DLC and Xbox One VOIP

Late last night a patch update started rolling out for the PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 for Battlefield 4. Much of that update included a ton of various bug fixes that were needed. It is also the pre-curser patch update for the upcoming Dragon’s Teeth DLC that will launch for Premium members July 15th. While none of that really has anything to do with Android, the accompanying Battlefield 4 Commander companion  app certainly does.

EA has also pushed an update to the Commander app to prep it for the Dragon’S Teeth DLC. This is important if you ever play Battlefield 4 as a commander. Without the update you can’t play the 4 new maps and help your team. Besides prepping it for the new DLC, the update also brings in VOIP communication between Commander app tablet players and Xbox One players. That is pretty awesome really. This feature was previously only available for PC players and the Commander app.

If you are still playing Battlefield 4 and are gearing up for the new Dragon’s Teeth expansion, you should probably be sure to update your Android tablets as well.

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Yahoo researchers teach GPS to take the scenic route

Often the shortest route between two places involves some grey, eight-lane expanse of Interstate that’s about as thrilling to drive as it was to pave. Resourceful road-trippers have learned to make use of the avoid highways feature, but that’s always a crapshoot. Sometimes you get a scenic country road, sometimes you get trapped in strip mall hell. But researchers at Yahoo Labs have figured out how to measure the “beauty” of a route using an algorithm. “The goal of this work is to automatically suggest routes that are not only short but also emotionally pleasant,” which might be especially important to pedestrians looking to avoid grim over passes and busy intersections. The work started by crowdsourcing opinions about images harvested from Street View and Geograph for locations throughout London. The locations that were deemed to be more beautiful by users were then plotted on a map and used as waypoints to provide directions. The resulting routes were on average only 12 percent longer than the shortest path to a destination, but 30 test subject all agreed the results were more pleasing, aesthetically.

Obviously the this method won’t work for every location around the globe, so the researchers are now working on an automated method that relies on Flickr. The group started by looking at 5 million photos of the same locations that were deemed most beautiful in their initial experiment. They found out that the number of photos of a location and the amount of positive comments generally correlated with its rated beauty. So the team put its method to the test in Boston. Most of the 54 test subjects agreed that the automatically generated “scenic route” was more beautiful than the shorter alternative.

You can check out sample maps in the research paper at the source link if you happen to be in Boston or London. But the next step for Daniele Quercia who headed the project is to build a mobile app that can get a beta test in the wild. Who know, maybe soon enough you’ll be able to ask your phone to take you on the scenic route and avoid the soulless expanses of I95.

Filed under: GPS, Software

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Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Cornell University Library